
Olive Oil Prices Soar in Morocco, Straining Household Budgets
Olive oil has become an inaccessible luxury for Moroccan households with modest incomes. The price per liter has already crossed the 100 dirham mark.

Olive oil has become an inaccessible luxury for Moroccan households with modest incomes. The price per liter has already crossed the 100 dirham mark.

While Moroccans were expecting a drop in olive oil prices after the end of the harvest and pressing phases, nothing has apparently changed for them.

Jaime and Judith, two culinary content creators, recently visited a supermarket in Morocco. The two Spanish influencers shared their Moroccan experience on their social networks.

Morocco is facing an unprecedented olive oil crisis. The olive harvest expected for this year is experiencing a dizzying drop, a direct consequence of the years of drought that have plagued the country. And this will of course be reflected in the final price.

Olive oil, a pillar of Moroccan gastronomy, is now found at exorbitant prices. The fault lies with a persistent drought that, for the past five years, has weighed down national production and burdened household budgets.

The National Office of Sanitary Safety of Food Products (ONSSA) is multiplying control operations to ensure the quality of olive oil and its derivatives at the level of the Béni Mellal-Khénifra region.

Bouazza Kherrati, president of the Moroccan Federation of Consumer Rights, called on the competent Moroccan authorities to strengthen controls in order to fight against food product fraud in general and olive oil in particular.

Parliamentarians have questioned the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development and Water and Forests about the high cost of olive oil and the fraud affecting this product highly prized by Moroccans.

Faced with the drop in olive production and the sharp rise in olive oil prices , Morocco is opening its doors wide to foreign olive oil.

Not a single Moroccan olive oil is among the best in the world, according to the Top 100 of the prestigious Evooleum Awards.

The price of olive oil in Morocco is reaching new heights, approaching 120 dirhams per liter for the new harvest. This price surge is worrying consumer associations, who fear an increase in fraudulent practices and the formation of monopolies. Olive oil is, in fact, a basic food product in the Moroccan diet, and its current scarcity is fueling covetousness.

Morocco has authorized Brazil to export olive oil to the Moroccan market, the Brazilian authorities announced. The persistent drought that has hit the kingdom for six years has led to a sharp drop in domestic olive oil production and a disproportionate rise in the prices of this highly prized product.